On the Efficacy of Character Education for Cultivating Virtue By Katarina Bednar © 2018 Submitted to the graduate degree program in Philosophy and the Graduate Faculty of the University of Kansas in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Chair: Erin Frykholm Dale Dorsey Ben Eggleston Bradford Cokelet Meagan Patterson Date Defended: 19 April 2018 ii The dissertation committee for Katarina Bednar certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: On the Efficacy of Character Education for Cultivating Virtue Chair: Erin Frykholm Date Approved: 19 April 2018 iii Abstract This dissertation serves to support deliberate attempts to cultivate moral character. Character education faces criticism, some of which are inherited from its grounding in virtue theory. The aim of this dissertation is to confront these particular critiques and show that they can be answered in an effort to vindicate the prospects of character education. When philosophers question whether character traits are stable and robust in the way that virtue theory posits them to be, a similar problem holds for character education: is there any point to character education if character does not exist in the way we traditionally think about it? I appropriate Christian Miller’s Mixed Traits framework to show that character education can handle standard situationist challenges that maintain that our environments are better predictors of our behaviors than our characters. Another problem concerns the possibility of developing the kinds of character traits that character education dictates. I defend the possibility, motivated in part by the work of Michael Slote, Nancy Snow, and others. I argue that active cultivation is not only the most promising method for character development, it is also necessary for becoming virtuous. I defend a two-tier approach to character and virtue acquisition that is skill-based, and involves teaching and fostering skills of self-awareness, perception, and responsiveness. My account faces opposition on grounds that various influences can interfere in the process of cultivation. Eric Schwitzgebel and Jennifer Saul raise skepticism regarding the extent to which we can rely on our mental faculties, and Heather Battaly challenges the role environment can play in virtue development. I recognize the call for strategies to overcome both internal and external influences and respond by drawing on contemporary empirical research. Teaching skills of self-awareness, perception, and responsiveness, and offering opportunities to practice these skills will enable students to become virtuous. This project is grounded in and motivated by philosophical, psychological, and educational research. It proposes a realistic and empirically supported approach to character development. I am optimistic that a skill-based approach will enable students to become virtuous, and hopeful that it will be implemented in curriculum in the future. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iii Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Laying The Foundation: The Character Debate Today ............................................ 3 Chapter Two: A Two-Tier Approach to Character Development ................................................ 14 Chapter Three: Skepticism about Self-awareness ......................................................................... 32 Chapter Four: Character, Virtue, and Environment ...................................................................... 44 Chapter Five: The Impetus for Character Education .................................................................... 56 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 72 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................. 75 1 Introduction Character development is not something we can continue to debate with comfort. Its practical implications are of such importance that devising empirically grounded strategies must be pushed to the forefront of discussion. The questions of how we can improve our moral character and how we can become virtuous (assuming it is possible) solicit philosophers, psychologists, and educators alike. The philosophical perspective grounds the debate regarding the nature of moral character. The psychological perspective collates speculative routes for improvement and informs the discussion. It is then left to educators to implement the philosophical and psychological findings into curriculum. The problem is that actualizing the theoretical and practical requires coordination and cooperation among the three disciplines, which is seriously lacking. It is thus that I attempt to bring forth an account of how to enable students to become virtuous for those in education policy and development, with hopes that the account not only offers practical strategies and outlook for moral education, but that it also is a catalyst for change. This project begins (Chapter 1) by laying the foundation for the realism challenge: the longstanding criticism against virtue ethics that demands an account of how people can become virtuous that is both empirically and psychologically grounded. In Chapter 2 I offer a response that lies in active cultivation. In order for people to improve their moral characters, they must change their dispositions that give rise to certain kinds of desires and beliefs. Through self-awareness, perception and responsiveness, self-cultivation facilitates the change of dispositions that enables agents to become virtuous. In Chapter 3 I acknowledge that there are various reasons to be skeptical that agents can successfully engage in self-cultivation. First, my account requires agents to engage in self-reflection and self-awareness throughout the process of self-cultivation. Psychological literature indicates that our perception and introspection is flawed, and thereby suggests that we are unable to aptly meet these requirements. Our internal faculties are not the only obstacle for becoming virtuous; our environments can also interfere with virtue acquisition. In Chapter 4 I contend that we can come up with strategies to tackle both the internal and external variables that may negatively affect our moral development. The three primary strategies I advocate for are fostering awareness, situating ourselves in environments that are conducive to virtue development, and developing certain skills. Finally, although there is debate regarding whether the classroom is the appropriate setting for moral development, I contend that it is the ideal setting in Chapter 5. The aforementioned strategies can and ought to be implemented in the classroom, and specifically in the context of character education. The effectiveness of character education has been repeatedly called into question, but I argue that by centralizing active cultivation and incorporating 2 defensive and offensive strategies, character education not only can foster character development, it can enable students to become virtuous in empirically and psychologically grounded ways. 3 Chapter One: Laying The Foundation: The Character Debate Today Section I: Character education “Schools cannot avoid influencing the moral development of their students, though they can certainly avoid thinking through what they actually do and the impact that they have. The question […] is […] ‘how can schools ensure that their (inevitable) influence on their students’ moral development is both positive and effective?’”1 I believe the answer is found in character education. Broadly construed, character education can be characterized as an umbrella term used to describe many aspects of teaching and learning for personal development. Some areas under this umbrella are ‘moral reasoning/cognitive development’; ‘social and emotional learning’; ‘moral education/virtue’; ‘life skills education’; ‘caring community’; ‘health education’; ‘violence prevention’; ‘conflict resolution/peer mediation’ and ‘ethic/moral philosophy’.2 More narrow characterizations hinge on some variation of a sentiment that relays the attempt to imbue students with good character. “Put most simply, character education advocates want their programs to promote positive ethical behavior among young people and reduce or eliminate socially and personally destructive behavior.”3 Character education has had a longstanding tradition in the American public school system; “[v]irtually every school in the US in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was responding in some implicit way to the educational goal of developing character.”4 While different approaches challenged one another through the years, by the end of the 20th century, character education re-emerged as the leading approach for moral education. Increased juvenile delinquency further justified its existence. “Contemporary character education advocates are appalled at reported high rates of personally and socially destructive behavior among youth. Advocates claim that such behavior is a result of poor character. […] [P]eople with bad character hold bad values and produce bad behavior. People with good character hold good values and engage in